Dragon and Fair Maiden
by Priss88
Summary: I gasped, only then realizing who he had to be. Malfoy? It was less of an accusation than I might have wished for, but it did convey the shocked horror that this, well, this is embarrassing but, this sexy man was the sniveling exferret who had tormented H
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So this fic might take a plunge into the darker side of Draco/Ginny later. I'm trying to keep it light in the first few chapters but the rating is high just in case (also because I have a potty mouth). Just heads up. **

** Dragon and Fair Maiden**

_And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain  
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders  
Well don't you know that its a fool who plays it cool  
By making his world a little colder_

_Hey, Jude! Don't let her down  
You have found her, now go and get her  
Remember, to let her into your heart  
Then you can start to make it better._

**August, 29, 1:23 (AM)/technically tomorrow, Bathroom at The Rogue New York City, horrible bridesmaid dresses: 1, dances with father: 1, enormous wedding rows: 1,**

It's been a long time coming but I've finally decided to open another diary. I think this year will be a year of rebirth and my best at Hogwarts and that deserves a diary. This one hopefully will not be possessed by a younger version of some Dark Lord fellow. But here this now dear diary if you ever start acting up the way Tom did I will chuck you so fast you won't know what hit you and not down the lou either. It'll be straight to the fire with you!

No really...I mean it! Don't even think about it!

Woke up this morning with sunlight in my eyes, a horrible pain in my shoulder where I had slept on it funny and mum standing over me twittering gaily, "get up Ginny! It's The Big Day!" For a moment I thought that perhaps I had counted wrong and I was off to Hogwarts (a point of dual excitement and stomach dropping horror because I haven't packed one robe yet), but then I remembered--cousin Tracy's wedding. Now I don't want to be mean or anything but I don't know why everyone's going so ape shit about this wedding. I mean Tracy and Jeff have barely anything in common except a little mass of DNA growing in her stomach right now and the favorite month for divorce according to the running bet pool among my uncles is December.

But she's the first grandchild to be married on mum's side of the family and she's a very pleasant person really so everyone is just pretending that they're star-crossed lovers. I swear to god they were having this really nasty row last night at the top of their lungs in the restaurant and Tracy had just told Jeff that he was the most pompous arrogant, dickless fuckwit she'd ever had the misfortune to run across when my mom sighs, "ah young lovers."

Barbie smirked at me across the table and rolled her eyes.

Barbie is my only cousin close to my age. We aren't very close because she goes to Salem, lives in the states and she's beautiful and so bloody popular that she finally had to douse the fire last night because so many people kept flooing their heads in we couldn't bloody well sleep. This could easily be very detestable but she has a cardinal sense of fair play that she follows so unswervingly that you cannot help but respect her.

"Just leave her Aunt Molly." Barbie said from where she was applying make up in our bathroom (we always bunk together when we can at these family events). "I'll get her up, you just go get into that wonderful dress of yours. You look so very nice in it I'd love to see you in it."

"Okay well don't be late for the brunch!" Mum reminded us. I could practically hear her blush at Barbie's compliment. I buried my head under the pillow then so I didn't hear the rest of the conversation

"You can sleep for another five minutes Gin but then you've got to get up and get dressed or we really will be late." She said when mum had shut the door, coming to sit on my bed and rub my back gently to get my attention.

"No." I mumbled pushing the pillow off my head and swinging my legs over the side of the bed. "I'm up. Can you see my wand? I've got a really bad ache in my shoulder."

"Slept on it wrong?" She said sympathetically, producing her own wand and charming the pain out.

The day went by like a tectonic plate--sticking and slipping in little disasters and then long stretches between where nothing happened except a lot of reruns-- and then, very suddenly it seemed, Barbie and I were zipped into matching bridesmaid dresses (all the cousins too old to be flower girls are bridesmaids but of course Barbie is the only one that looks good in the dresses) and adjusting our dreadfully tight buns.

The bridesmaid's dresses are horrifying things. They're a weird off pink color that looks like salmon or throw up or thrown up salmon and there made out of what appears to be thousands and thousands of stitched together doilies. They also bulge in strange and terrifying places on people. Mine for examples puckers to make me look like I'm hiding the early stages of pregnancy. I can only assume they mixed my dress design with Tracy's.

I don't remember much about the ceremony, just mum sobbing all over me in very public manner and saying how she only hoped my wedding would be as lovely, but the rest of the night is seared into my memory with terrible permanence. It started out okay, as I recall, I had some chicken from the buffet and some cake and ice cream too and played a game of fairies under the table with a few of my younger cousins and was just beginning to have a good time when my dad asked me to dance.

"Come on Gin don't be a spoiled sport!" He said. "It's tradition for a father to dance with his daughter at a wedding!"

I am not a very good dancer (especially since I've gotten grown about five inches this summer) but the accident was dad's fault, not mine. I had just gotten the hang of the step when dad spun me out near the edge of the dance floor and I smacked right into Jeff (the Groom) as hard as I could. He was talking to Tracy and the punch he was holding went all over her wedding gown.

Everyone instantly went silent as Tracy's coloring began to get redder and redder until she was about the shade of the enormous stain on her dress. "Jeff you dumb shit look, just look, what you did!" She screeched. "You're so fucking useless! You couldn't have waited till after the wedding photos for this kind of stunt!"

I just stood there like an idiot, punch dripping down my back, my mouth open, staring aghast at the horrible thing I had just one. "I am so sorry." I started to say but they were already at it.

"Jesus Tracy your stupid cousin knocked into me." Jeff shouted. "If she'd been looking where she was going none of this would have happened." Any hope that my name would not forever be linked with the inevitable divorce evaporated.

Barbie broke away from one of the best men who had been trying to romance her in the corner and came to pull me away from the quarreling couple (I was still standing next to them with my mouth open like an idiot). "Come on Gin." She hissed. A little while later I slipped off to here to sulk and contemplate whether it's better for me if God exists and he's a big shithead or if everything is just a random collision of particles.

Have called Colin but got his very annoyed dad. Get the feeling Mr. and Mrs. Creevey might have been having sex. Have decided never to mention this to Colin out of the goodness of my heart.

More later. For now I've got to go out and face my aunts and uncles sometime. Might as well be now right?

**  
August, 30, 2:45 (PM), muggle flying machine back to London, number of times punch has been brought up: 68, milk trays consumed: 5, fantasize about an engine going out and Harrison Ford and I parachuting onto a charming deserted tropical island in the middle of the ocean to be found months later looking like Tarzan in Jane and sporting remarkably smooth, even tans: 19, number of unfunny jokes about the punch: countless, **

Have been in listless daze all day driven to the point of madness by my family and fear of sketchy muggle engineering going awry. Dad would insist on taking some insane invention like an "airoplain." And over a bloody ocean too!

Eventually a medium sized cousin was found that was just the right height to cover the punch stain but not intrude in the pictures and so the wedding photos went off all right but that has not seemed to buy me any slack in the torture/shame department. My only solace is that soon I will be home and will be allowed to disappear into my room (oh my own room! How I love you so much!).

"Wonderful," Dad keeps repeating next to me, "how wonderful." He is staring out the window like a mad man but he seems happy enough.

**August, 31, 9:43 (PM), My Room, trunks packed: 1, times mum has asked about homework/packing: 14, times mum has tried to have serious discussion about drugs/drinking/premarital sex/boys: 18, times I've avoided serious discussion about drugs/drinking/premarital sex/boys: 17 and 1/2,**

Colin came over today and we managed to escape for a couple hours into muggle London for a double feature of some muggle moving photograph (like a real photograph but with a plot) but it was only a brief respite in mum's nagging. I swear it's like she's got a certain amount of nagging she must do or bust and since there's only Ron and me left to nag now she's got to get it all out on the two of us. What will I do next year? She'll have to start weeks in advance to get it all in in time and by the time term starts I'll be stark raving mad.

I've been feeling oddly lately. This time last year I remember asking my mom about drugs/drinking/premarital sex/ boys and genuinely thinking she could tell me the answer but now I just want to be left alone. I'm so bloody irritable these days. Little things like mum's nagging or Ron talking about stupid things he'd never do have really started to get under my skin.

After the photograph I was reluctant to return home so Colin and I wondered into Diagon Alley looking for classmates or adventure. We found both.

We'd just bought ice creams and were wondering down toward the exotic pet shop where Colin likes to play with the baby Sphinxes and Chimeras when a toddler ripped her fist from her mother's hand and tore off down a back alley. "Virginia! Virginia come back here right now!" The mother shouted, snapping her up to keep her heaping pile of packages from toppling over.

I turned to answer my name just in time to see the little streak of girl-child vanish down a sinister looking turn off. I realized just then that this Virginia was a second cousin of mine, named after our common great grandmother. Her mother and my mother were good friends. "I got her." I yelled to Aunt Maxime and went after her almost before I knew what I was doing.

I had always been a fast runner (I might be cursed with being an unnaturally tall girl but it pays off in moments like this) but she was fast too and she had a considerable head start and so several twists and turns later before I had closed the gap. She darted off into another side street quickly and I had to break hard to make the turn.

I swear to god I thought the bottom of my stomach had fallen out when I saw him standing over little Virginia but probably out of horror. He smirked when he saw me and pushed back the comically deep hood of his cloak, revealing that his body wasn't the only thing that had changed over the summer. Under the designer cloak was a ratty pair of muggle blue jeans like Colin always wears and a white T-shirt. "Weaslette." He said, smirking lazily at me.

I gasped, only then realizing who he had to be. "Malfoy?" It was less of an accusation than I might have wished for, but it did convey the shocked horror that this, well, this is embarrassing but, this sexy man was the sniveling ex-ferret who had tormented Harry, Ron and me through school. I picked up Virginia, who had become silent as the grave thankfully, who tried to burrow into my shoulder to get away from Malfoy.

"None other." He said and then his eyes turned to the girl. "Already spawning a new generation of Weasleys then? This explains how you bloody Weasleys have so many offspring. Early start. Whose the father? Potter? What a naughty, naughty little boy-who-lived he's turning out to be."

I tossed my red hair defiantly. "She isn't mine." I said. "I was just doing something called a "good deed." You might have heard it mentioned once or twice."

He laughed and leaned in to whisper in the ear that Virginia wasn't currently occupying. "I'd be a lot nicer to me if I were you Weaslette, this isn't your neck of the woods and I would bet a hundred galleons you're lost as the first sheep."

I blushed, realizing simultaneously that he was right and that Virginia was chewing on a strand of my hair near my other ear. "All right Malfoy, you're right of course, pointing me in the right direction would be much appreciated." I groaned, resisting the urge to bury my face in the same way my namesake was doing in my now slobbery hair.

"Kitty." Virginia cooed in my ear.

He looked at me for a long moment taking in my wild hair, the worn spots on my cloak, the patch on my shoe and the little girl on my hip. I kicked my brain into overdrive, ready to snap back at any snide remark he was about to produce but it never came. "I'll walk you back to Diagon Alley." He said. "But next time you wonder into Knocturn Alley you might not be so lucky little Gryffindor. People here are just waiting for a cute little bit like you to wander by."

"Wander by! Wander by! Wander by!" Virginia chanted at him but fell into a shyly smiling silence when he actually returned her gaze.

Malfoy walked me in silence back to a point where I could see Diagon Alley rushing past. "Remember what I said Weaslette about coming down here." He said and then turned back, pulling his hood over his bright blond hair. I wanted to point out that I had hardly come down to Knockturn Alley of my own volition but it seemed rude considering he had maybe just saved my life.

"Wait Malfoy." I said.

"Yes?" He said turning around.

"Thanks a lot." I said sheepishly.

He didn't say anything in reply but simply turned back toward the dank alley.

Aunt Max was in a state when I got back but Colin had done a good job of talking her off a ledge. When Virginia and I reappeared she pounced on both of us, blessing both of us, scolding Virginia and crushing us in a hug all in the same move. I didn't tell Colin about my encounter with Malfoy down the alley for some reason.

It's weird but it's the same feeling I have about my period. I've always been very strange about my period and I gape openly at girls who can go on about cramps and heavy bleeding and the like in a public place. It wouldn't even occur to me to tell anyone about that sort of thing. Hell my mum only noticed I'd started when she realized that someone was taking sanitary napkins and the like out of her bathroom.

**September, 1, 1:20 (PM), Hogwarts Train, disgusting Bertie Bot's consumed: 3 (2 sardine and a salt), theories on why the Quidditch World Cup went the way it did: 4, times we've dissected the last moments of the cup: 11, fantasize about Tommy Dublin (the most handsome sixth year) kicking in the door and kissing me in manner of Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind: 19, fights about Quidditch: 3, times I've tried to change the subject from Quidditch: 48, successful times I've tried to change the subject from Quidditch: 0,**

I shall break down for you the personal theories on Quidditch of all four of my best friend because I have nothing else in the world to do.

Francis: (a French exchange student from second year who never went back and a Paris Flyers fan) The Flyers are to Quidditch what the Chicago Cubs are to American baseball. Because the fans show up, drink all the beer and buy all the stupid knickknacks and hotdogs whether or not the team is a winner there is no motive for the managers to ever make a winner so they've been doormats practically since the dawn of time. She probably has the most objective opinion, which is that the London Lightings were just a better team.

Quincy and Adam Johns: (a set of twins that might as well be the same person. They both go for the London Lightings) Q&A didn't say much except for smug moans of ecstasy the whole train ride. Like true winners they have withheld their opinions in a mockery of modesty to rub in just how thoroughly they trounced the other teams but it is clear that they believe that God has given their team a special place in His kingdom and ordained that they be winners.

Colin: (my best friend and a Ballycastle Bat's fan) Colin thinks that if for a little bit of luck the Bats would have swept the cup, the FA and the world series.

I have given myself a manicure and pedicure, put my hair up, sorted my socks and given Colin a pedicure. I wanted to give him a manicure too but he wouldn't let me. He said that there are still some people in the world who don't know he's homosexual and he doesn't want to shock them. "Everyone knows you're gay mate." Quincy said.

"You're joking yourself if you think otherwise." Adams added.

"No." Colin said. "I'm really quite a subtle gay."

"You know there's a reason your nickname is San Francisco." Francis pointed out.

"It's because of my great bone structure." Colin said but he was laughing. "It's like the great architectural marvels of San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge for example, that could be my nose." He turned to show us his profile. "See how nice my nose is."

"It won't be nice when I break it." Quincy said, making a punch at the air in front of Colin's nose.

Maybe I'll start reading my Transfiguration book to get ahead in class.

**1:28 (PM), **

I forgot how boring Transfiguration is. Maybe I'll wonder down the train and see if I can find anyone else I want to catch up with before the feast starts.

**1:59 (PM), **

Heard interesting gossip on the train. Very interesting gossip indeed. Draco Malfoy got kicked out of his house and disowned by his father over the summer and spent most of the summer living with his estranged uncle in muggle London. So that explains the clothes in Knockturn Alley.

Ron is crowing with delight at this fall from grace but I can't help but wonder if Ron won't be disappointed. Malfoy seemed the same smirking SOB he's always been in Knockturn Alley. I hardly think this term is going to mark a major shift in the power dynamic between him and Ron. I may be wrong but I don't think so. It seems somehow that Ron might never one up Malfoy in a completely satisfactory way.

AN: I've written a few more chapters but I haven't finished this story so feel free to write in and tell me what you think should happen. I can't promise it will be the kind of instant gratification you get from say chose-your-own-ending Goosebumps but I can promise I'll consider it seriously. Seriously, write in! Make a difference in your community! Oh yeah and give me constructive criticism/sycophantic flattery if you want more.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: This story was conceived before HBP so it completely ignores the events of said book. Sorry. I am also sorry it took so freaking long to update.**

**The Dragon and Fair Maiden**

**September, 2, 8:46 (AM), Great Hall, marriage proposals: 1, bacon strips Colin has mooched: 3, bacon strips consumed: 1, disasters: 2, **

It is a strange thing but, when you are twelve, Truth or Dare isn't just a game; it's a lifestyle choice. How far you will go and how honest you will get defines your social status for a whole year. I was never very good. See deep down I am a creature of foolish pride and if I can help it I do not publicly humiliate myself but Colin lapped it up. He was supremely popular that year and there is still a certain awe of legend that surrounds him to this day.

And I think/hope that the same reason he did those crazy things (ie that he is a huge, drama-loving freak) was the reason that someone requested my hand this morning. See I was just coming down to the Great Hall when a second year boy stops just in front of me, drops to one knee and proposes. To bad for me he did it so quickly out of fright or shame or something and I tripped over him and went crashing to the floor. A shout of dismay as I knocked into the girl in front of me and then everyone was laughing as I picked myself up, brushing eggs and sausages off the front of my robes.

I smiled sheepishly and dropped curtseys to my left and right, which is really all you can do in those situations, helped the unfortunate boy up and politely declined. The girl in front of me, having had the good fortune of being knocked into a bulky Hufflepuff Chaser hadn't made it to floor, smiled good-naturedly and brushed off my apology. "No harm, no foul." She said.

That was the first disaster, the second one was much worse and it arrived with the morning mail: schedules. Mine went thus:

Transfiguration 9:00-10:00

History of Magic 10:00-11:00

Advanced Study of Ancient Runes: 11:00-12:00

Lunch 12:00-1:00

Advanced Potions 1:00-2:00

Advanced Herbology: 2:00-3:00

Advanced Charms 3:00-4:00

I have only 1 class in common with Colin and the only differences in our schedules are he took regular potions and Advanced Transfiguration. And to top it off the one class we do have in common is Herbology and ever since we moved into Greenhouse six last year everyone has been more interested in walking out without nerve toxins soaking in their bloodstream than chatting. Worse still, no one I know has Advanced Potions the same period as me. In fact, no one I know has it at all.

"Everyone knows that class is brutal." Quincy said when he saw it on my card.

"And the NEWT is impossible." Adam added.

"It must be a mistake." I said. "I didn't sign up for Advanced Potions last term."

"No one signs up for it." Francis said. "Snape picks a handful of students drafts them for the class."

Oh great. "Well can't I just drop out?" I asked.

"You can try." Quincy said.

"But no one's ever done it before." Adam added.

This is bad. This is very bad. I mean I've always been very good at potions (good enough to force even Snape to give me a top grade) but I didn't think it was nearly enough to get me into advanced. I hadn't even really thought about it actually.

**3:38 (PM), **

Advanced Potions is worse than I thought. I thought there would be a couple of kids, maybe twenty or so, but no such luck. During our introductory lecture Snape told us how we were the "elite few" and how we must leave our peers behind and not be hampered by their rules and standards. And by we he meant me and Draco Malfoy and that's it. The whole class is just the two of us and Severus Snape, creepy professor and twisted bafflement extraordinaire.

I told my friends today that I was expected to deal with Snape and Malfoy for a whole hour every day. Colin says I should buy an attack whistle and a spray can of pepper spray. Q&A say I should move to France and change my name. Francis says I should beg Dumbledoor to let me drop the class. I'm considering all three very seriously.

**September, 10, 3:21 (PM), Charms, notes from Colin: 3, failing potions grades: 1, lectures about failing potions grade from Snape: 17, **

Note from Colin:

CC: I saw Malfoy today for the first time

GW: So?

CC: What do you mean so? The man is hunky in the best possible way. What I wouldn't give to be locked up in a dungeon with that piece of man for an hour every day

GW: That's disgusting

CC: Shut up Ginny you're just being prejudice because he's evil

GW: Why does that not strike me as so very wrong?

CC: Sure, he's evil. I didn't say marry him, I just want you to admit that he's really, really sexy

GW: Okay, fine, he's attractive

CC: And if he was anyone else you would totally be in that in a second

GW: If he was anyone else I would totally be in that in a second

CC: Me too

GW: Anything else?

CC: Yeah. Do you have any idea what Flitwick is talking about?

GW: None

CC: Oh, I'll just ask Francis then.

I have to do something about my potions grade but I couldn't wrangle extra help out of Snape if I threatened to kill his mother (if he even has a mother and didn't just spore out of some disgusting toadstool) and Malfoy will just spit in my face if I ask him. And he could help me too if he wanted, Malfoy I mean. I thought at first that daddy had bribed someone or that Snape's overwhelming prejudice towards him had gotten him but apparently not. I guess that makes sense though since he basically divorced his nuclear family over the summer.

Today for example we were making an arthritis cure and mine was turning a lovely blue shade instead of the congealed orange it was supposed to. "You aren't chopping your newt tails fine enough." He said, peering into my cauldron. Snape would have done this for him (and probably in an only slightly less rude tone) but he was out of the room.

"How would you know?" I snapped back.

"Contrary to what I'm sure you think I didn't just get in here on my good looks." He said. "Unlike you I actually know what I'm doing."

"Why Malfoy I didn't know you'd noticed my "good looks." I said. What I was doing was stupid, really. It was insane too, like poking a sleeping dragon in the eye with a very short stick but I was so annoyed with life and my potion I wasn't really thinking clearly.

"You aren't very good at flirting Weaslette." He laughed. "And I never was partial to redheads but maybe if you asked very politely..."

I blushed and tried to stamp on his toes but he was too quick, jerking back his foot and grabbing my wrists in a fist. I kicked at his shins but he shoved me back by my wrists to keep me away from him. Someone had spilled their cauldron in the last class and the floor still oily and slick from the cleaning solution. I toppled over and when he tried to keep me erect by pulling on my wrists I slipped and slid. I didn't loose my footing though, just slowly slid until I was almost parallel with the floor at this point and held up only by his grip on my wrists. "Don't let go!" I shouted in panic. It must have been only a few feet to the floor but I couldn't see so it seemed like farther.

"Shut up Weaslette!" He said, jerking me roughly to my feet and almost pulling my arms out of my sockets in the process. "You aren't going to fall."

"Thanks." I said sheepishly, brushing my robes hastily in some semblance of dignity.

"You are welcome." He said harshly, throwing down my wrists and turning back to his cauldron.

So I've got bruises on my wrists and I'm no closer to getting real help from Malfoy. a least I didn't crack my bloody head open on the dungeon floor.

**September, 17, 11:24 (AM), Study of Ancient Runes, attempts to talk to Malfoy about help in potions: 3, attempts to talk to Malfoy aborted at the last moment: 2, horrible moral dilemmas: 1,**

Asked Malfoy after class if he could help me with the homework/potions in general tonight as we were leaving class tonight. I just sort of blurted it out as we were making our way toward the door. "Get real Weaslette." He laughed, shoving the last of his books into his bag and turning for the door.

"I'm serious Malfoy." I said, following him. "If you don't help me I'm going to fail."

"Then fail." He said, not turning around as we emerged into the corridor.

"Please!" I said, trotting after him like I was tied to him.

I didn't really expect it to work. I'd said it when I'd first asked him after all but he stopped suddenly like I'd shot an arrow into his back. "What Herbology are you in?" He asked.

"Advanced." I said without thinking.

"I'll tutor you in potions but you'll have to do something for me in return." He said.

"What?" I said.

I meant for him to repeat himself but he didn't understand. "I need you to grow me Gloomsbain." He said, stepping into my personal space and lowering his voice.  
I stepped back and thought about running, suddenly aware of how rarely people came down to this part of the castle except if they were unlucky enough to be forced into Advanced Potions. Gloomsbain was the active ingredient in some of the most malicious poisons, a handful of completely disgusting ones (entail expulsion for example) and even a love potion (but even that was somewhat more evil than most of its peers). I couldn't think of a single non-evil use for the stuff.

If he'd asked me to grow hash or Opium Poppies I wouldn't have blinked twice but this wasn't even in the same number system bad wise. Gloomsbain was highly illegal, just growing it was probably a felony and a half. "What do you need it for?" I asked, swallowing hard.

"I couldn't say." He said but he was smiling in a not that reassuring way.

"Why can't you grow it yourself?" I asked.

"You know it's very difficult to cultivate." He said. "And I only barely pass regular Herbology."

"I can't grow it for you if you can't tell me what you're going to do with it." I said.

"Too bad." He said with mock sympathy. "Have fun failing."

God what a time for my Gryffindor courage and nobility nonsense to kick in. I couldn't have waited until I was passing and then just killed the damn things. On the bright side I guess at least now I don't have to worry about being indirectly responsible for Harry's entrails being expelled.

**September, 19, 3:12 (PM), blatantly flirtatious comments from Seamus Finnegan: 12, insinuations of an impending date from Seamus Finnegan: 3, times Seamus Finnegan touched my hand during lunch: 6, **

We were all a little surprised when Seamus sat down with us today at lunch. He'd never sat with us before but he's really nice and fairly funny as well so no one was really put off by it. In fact he fell in nicely with us and had everyone laughing by time our next class started. The only thing is, is he was flirting with me the whole time. Everyone noticed it, even Adam who normally wouldn't notice a leg locker curse on his own legs, and to tell the truth it was a little awkward. Not that Seamus isn't attractive or anything or that it isn't nice to have some male attention from someone who isn't Draco Malfoy, Colin, Q&A or my father but the thing is, I'm not sure I want Seamus like that.

Oh this is so cliché. I'm making a mountain out of a bloody molehill.

**September, 22, 2:09 (PM), Girls Lavatory, baffling notes from Malfoy: 1, Quidditch arguments at lunch: 5, **

Baffling note from Malfoy:

_It's for an Underworld Pixie_

I had of course forgotten that Gloomsbain is the preferred food of Underworld Pixies but it's understandable because Underworld Pixies are about as rare as Gloomsbain plants. Of course if Malfoy could get one he could probably get the other too and as far as I knew Underworld Pixies weren't pure evil, just fundamentally mean spirited. All that's left to decide is if I trusted Malfoy not to use it for anything else. If it's just pixies and nothing else I'll do it without feeling any guilt but this is Malfoy we're talking about. He is perfectly capable of remorselessly feeding Harry (or Ron or Hermione or Collin or me or almost anyone in Hogwarts) something horrible.

**4:54 (PM)**

Hunted down Malfoy after last period in the library. "I need to know that it's just for Pixies." I said bluntly. "Just Pixies and that's all."

Out of his pocket came what looked to me like a glowing blue rock. "She needs to be planted soon or she'll die before she's even born and why bother if she'll just starve." He said casually, dropping them into my hand. Inside the squishy little embryo you could see the little thing in the fetal position, wings tucked against her back. "If you don't believe me though cast a Disturbance Charm on the room. It'll tell you everything that's been removed or changed in the room."

I nodded, realizing that I was on shaky ground, legally and morally. "Okay." I said. "I'll do it."

This is so stupid! And not only in the moral, legal or what-would-my-father-say ways but also because Malfoy isn't exactly Mr. Trustworthy. I guess I should add in here just in case I get caught a note to the Ministry of Magic that might get me off on 5 to ten years in Azkaban.

To the Ministry of Magic:

I did honestly believe that Malfoy meant to use the Gloomsbain for Underworld Pixies. I know I'm an idiot and I'm sure I feel really awful about whoever got kill/horribly mangled. I just really, really, really needed his help with passing Advanced Potions. I realize now that it was a stupid idea. I'm sorry again. Please be lenient.

Sincerely

Ginny Weasly

In other news Seamus has asked me if I want to maybe see the Quidditch match coming up in a few weekends (Slytherin v. Ravenclaw) "just as friends." But everyone knows that "just as friends" sometimes into "just friends snogging under the bleachers" and I think that's what he has in mind. I think I'll drag Colin along, he likes to watch the hunky chaser anyway and since we're going under the "just friends" excuse Seamus won't have any grounds to complain.

**September, 24, 5:57 (PM), Dormitory, illegal plants: 1, Advanced Potions grade: 67, **

Malfoy is surprisingly rigid about his no cheating policy. He makes me do all the bloody work on everything we do together and just stands over me and barks directions and insults. He almost made me cry the other day by calling me a mudblood (not technically an accurate insult) in a moment of anger. I'm not sure why, it's not like I really mind or anything. I was just tied and hungry and angry and he has a particularly nasty way of saying it because he really does hate me.

He's given me the Gloomsbain seeds and I've planted them in a secret room he showed me off the third floor corridor behind a painting of Maverick the Maniac. There is a sort of weird satisfaction in tending them. They haven't even sprouted and already there's something sinister about them.

It's a bit weird really but he also likes to stand just behind me too and it's given me the queer notion that maybe he only really remembers people by touching them. He always brushes my body in some way when we meet--- my hair, my hands, my legs, whatever-- and he has a very strange idea about social space. He won't stand for anyone getting near him on their own terms and in a typical aristocratic stupidity he hates crowds but he's constantly invading my personal bubble or whatever you want to call it.

Like the last time we were reviewing for our potions quiz after I'd added a fertilizer to the Gloomsbain's soil. I was struggling with the seven major categories of potions and he taught me a trick with putting my fingers up and down to give myself clues. But instead of just showing me he put his large, cold hands over mine and positioned my fingers where he wanted them.

I've told Colin about the Gloomsbain and he flipped out initially of course but he's all right with it now I think. "It's hard to think of Malfoy with pets." He laughed. "But I guess they are Underground Pixies and they're practically equivalent to cockroaches aren't they?"

"She's actually kind of cute looking." I said. "Or at least she was in the embryo I saw."

Colin winced. "Are you sure he's just using the plant for Pixies?"

"I cast a Disturbance Charm on the room." I said. "So he shouldn't be able to move or take anything out of the room without my knowing about. And this is going to sound weird but I don't think he wants to. I mean when we're in there he doesn't even insult me or anything."

Colin shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't want you to toss weed killer on the little buggers."

"Probably." I said.

**September, 28, 8:45 (PM), Dormitory, illegal plants: 1 (growing strong), Advanced Potions grade: 71 (passing!), **

Colin and I went boating out on the lake this afternoon. I was totally against it because of the Giant Squid but Colin wouldn't hear of it. "Come on Gin, the Giant Squid's a big softy! Where's that famous Gryffindor courage of yours?" He warbled, wondering up and down the rows of boats Hagrid stored on the Hogwart's boat dock.

"Uh, I dunno, maybe somewhere at the bottom of the lake devoured by the bloody squid!" I snapped.

It was actually very nice though. The boat wondered to and fro about the lake while Colin and I lay in the bottom and just talked and he read my bits and pieces of sexual beatnik poetry he thought were amusing. We saw the Giant Squid but it seemed content just to play a little game by propelling by and knock our boat off course with it's wake. In fact I was so comfortable with it after a while that I was reaching overboard as it went by to skim my fingers on it's weird, gelatinous skin.

This is what I love about Colin, he always has something to do in mind that's new and fun. When it's hot out we explore the dungeons, when it's cold we visit the kitchens and suck up to the house elves (the easiest job in the world), when it's nice out we wander the grounds and when it rains he's always got some funny new muggle board game to play. "What does Susan think of Quincy?" Colin asked suddenly. We were lying in the bottom with our heads together in the middle facing away from each other and our bare legs over the sides.

"She thinks he's attractive." I said. "She'd definitely go to Hogsmead with him next weekend."

See I am the boy's liaison to the feminine world and Colin is their liaison to me (honestly sixteen-years-old and they still need go betweens for girls they like) because he's queer. "Oh good." Colin said. "Now he can finally shut up about it and let us get some bloody sleep."

"Colin?" I said. "Do you fancy anyone?"

"Besides you Ginny?" He asked lazily.

"Well obviously besides me." I laughed. Colin always says that the only reason he's gay is because I'd never have him. Because he can't have me he's turned to men to comfort him as he cannot bear the female sex any longer. This is somewhat incongruous with the fact that we see each other every day we can.

"No one I can think of." He said.

I think he's lying though. I can always tell when Colin fancies someone but I have decided on a plan of patience; he'll tell me when he's ready. Or whenever I get desperate enough to wrangle it out of him through violence. I was just pondering who it could be when I realized that we had drifted very close to the north shore and Draco Malfoy and a group of Slytherin seventh years were talking on the shore under a tree.

He was staring at me too. I looked away once and then snuck another look. He was definitely still staring at me and I blushed because it was now painfully obvious that I was staring back. "What are you looking at?" Colin started, looking over his shoulder.

"Ahoy there! Prepare to be boarded!" It was Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas coming out on another boat to meet us in the lake. Colin, thank God, was distracted.

"Man the guns Ginny!" Colin shouted, sitting up briskly. "Heave to and swab the decks!" Well we held them off for a while by splashing them with lake water but eventually we tired and let them raft up with us.

Dean and Seamus had brought their swimming trunks and, with Colin and myself watching in amazement, they stripped down and dived overboard, coming up blue lipped and shivering but uncomplaining. They swam about, kicking and showing off and Colin and I pretended not to watch in the boat.

"Oh Jesus it's fucking cold." Seamus called to me from the water. "Come help me out Gin."

I came over to the side of the boat and obliged, sticking out a trusting hand for him to pull himself in with. Seamus would later claim he only meant to give me a start but he misjudged my footing in the boat and with one swift tug I was over the side and down in the bright, cold water. I shrieked in surprise and swallowed (read inhaled) quite a bit of water getting back to the surface.

Actually I didn't make it to the surface on my own. Colin, before any of us could really think about what had happened, had lunged over the side of the boat and, grabbing the back of my shirt, hoisted me bodily back into the boat. I coughed hard in the bottom on my hands and knees for a long minute, eyes all red and watery and lungs aflame but eventually I cleared the water from my lungs.

Seamus tried to apologize when we were all back in the boat but I blew him off. "S'okay Seamus." I said, my voice still weird from the coughing. "I'll forgive you when I'm in dry clothes." From the shore a few of the Slytherins were yelling nasty things, applauding Seamus and mocking me.

Seamus yelled something mean back about "teaching them a lesson" but it was all void over fifty feet of water.

I stole another look at Draco Malfoy. He wasn't staring at me anymore but he was staring at the man to his left and looking really angry. So it's a good thing I don't have a study session with him tonight.

**September, 30, 6:41 (PM), Dormitory, almost kisses from Malfoy: 1, times I almost told Colin about almost kiss from Malfoy: 13, minutes I haven't been thinking about almost kiss from Malfoy: 23, **

Woke up in a bad mood this morning, which lingered with me all the way through the school day. Well bad maybe wasn't the right word for it, I just kept getting this feeling like maybe something was off and I just couldn't seem to sit still. I skived off Potions and Charms and just walked around the school like a mad person because I couldn't sit still. But consequently I didn't tell Malfoy that I was going to mess with the Gloomsbain that night so I was surprised when I opened the door and found him waiting for me. "Where were you today?" He asked, looking like murder on a cracker.

Oh god, I realized, he's had a bad day too. "I just couldn't sit down today." I sighed with false joviality. "You know how it is. Spring air or whatever."

"It's fall." He said, very pointedly.

He was rougher with me than usual during potions review. Harsher on my mistakes and more insults interjected with his words. I almost asked what bug got up his butt but didn't think I wanted to see him explode today. Unfortunately for me, explosion was soon coming even as I tried to prevent it. "You're trying to be stupid!" He accused, standing up so quickly that his chair turned over when I made a careless error. "You must be trying. No one in the world can be that stupid without trying."

I looked up at him, stunned. "I just made a mistake..." I began.

"Just made a mistake? Your parents made a mistake when they had you!" He quipped.

I bit my lip to stop from tearing up but it was no use. A whole month's worth of abuse had finally bubbled over. I shook my head angrily and brushed away the tears, turning to start packing my book bag and wishing it already were so I could make a clean get-away. "You're a jerk." I said lamely though a choked up voice. "And I hate you. I thought I didn't for a while but now I really do! I can't believe I was so stupid!"

"Wait." He said, stepping into my path.

"I'm not going to tell anyone about the Gloomsbain Malfoy." I said stubbornly not looking at his face but rather at his chest. "So just calm down. Not all of us have sunk to your level." He didn't move. Actually that's not true, he moved in front of me whenever I tried to side step. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" I pushed at him with my hands and then with my shoulder but he was much stronger. I considered punching him but he'd just grab my wrists again.

Finally I looked up, stepping backwards so I wasn't flat against him. "Please get out of my way." I said with very forced diplomacy.

He laughed and placed two slender fingers on each side of my chin. "Why would I want to do that Weaslette?" He asked. "When you're so bloody cute when you're angry." Is there anything more annoying to say to someone who's angry? None that I can think of.

"Bugger off you stupid prat!" I said. "Or Ron will kick your ass."

"Awww what a big girl you are. Running to your brother because the big bad Malfoy made you upset." He still hadn't let go of my chin, despite my wildly shaking my head a lot. I tried to push his hand down but he caught my wrists with his other hand. "And like Weasley could."

"Big? Aren't you the optimist Malfoy?" I said cruelly. I was so angry then that I felt like I really might hit him as hard as I could.

He laughed again. "You wouldn't know."

"I don't even want to." I was really running out of material at this point.

And that was when he kissed me. Actually that's a lie. Our faces were about an inch apart and at the same moment we realized it and shut up talking. For a full moment our lips were centimeters apart and the only sound in the room was two sets of lungs inhaling and exhaling but finally. I stared at him with big eyes, not moving forward but certainly not moving away either. God! Why didn't I lean back or shove him off me? It's not as if I wanted him to kiss me.

He leaned back finally. "Now are you going to come back and behave or are we going to stand here for a while longer?" He asked.

"I'll come back." I said sheepishly, embarrassed at my apparent want of the kiss. I hate that I can't get this out of my head. I mean it so painfully embarrassing but for some reason it's just like a broken record.

The rest of the lesson went rigidly formal. No cutting jabs from either team and no foul play. It was, to say the least, a night of firsts.

**AN: So I appreciate any feed back. What do you think of Draco and Ginny? Are they acting out of character? I mean Draco is obviously but can you believe he might act like this? Also what do you think of the plot twists? Please drop me a review. Also: five points to Draco'sGirl05 for getting the John Quincy Adams joke. I was wondering if anyone would catch that.**


End file.
